Saying goodnight is so hard to do...

Here are some images to show our nightly routine. Charlie now reads to Elizabeth every night before bed. She is still in the habit of sucking those two fingers on her left hand, while holding her baby-of-choice in her other arm. Tonight it is Ivan, my childhood Cabbage Patch doll. Sometimes she just gazes at Charlie, studying him while he reads to her. Henry is laying nearby, in Elizabeth's toddler bed, looking tired & listening quietly to Charlie's story. But, as you can see, Henry doesn't always make it all the way to bed. Here he has fallen asleep on the stairs up to his room! The flash of the camera kept waking him up & made him grouchy, but it makes for an entertaining post! Elizabeth needs a little extra attention to get her to stay in bed. She has a fear of 'the barkley' at night. See, her cousins have a wiener dog named 'Barkely', he's a sweet thing, & one of the first dogs she has spent any real time with. So I guess this is why she calls dogs 'barkleys'. There was a time, months ago, that the neighbors 'barkley' was barking outside her window & she woke up from her nap terrified. So now we have to continually reveiw every night, that she is safe in her room, & the 'barkely' is stuck outside in his cage... I have even created "Barkley spray" by disguising a can of nicely-scented Lysol, & we spray a little "Barkley spray" in her room for each nap & bed time. So the other night, while I stayed late at work for a delivery, Stacey was at home scratching his head in frustration because Elizabeth was crying & refusing to go to bed. By the time I got home, she had finally gone to sleep. But Stacey wanted to know why she was crying for "Pocket space", because that's what it sounds like she says when she wants her "Barkley spray"!